London Marathon blog: The final kit decisions

If you’re taking part in the London Marathon (or in indeed any other event) this weekend, you’re probably checking the weather updates to work out what to wear! Long sleeve, short sleeve, shorts, leggings, hat, new shoes, old shoes? It’s a bit of a minefield….

I’ve been testing shoes during my build-up – which probably goes against all the advice. Generally it’s best to find the right pair of shoes and stick to them, so I’ve mainly done the testing on shorter runs like Saturday Parkrun and then keeping my usual shoes for longer sessions.

After many years of wearing minimal shoes or barefoot style shoes I now find it quite odd to wear anything with a chunkier sole or solid upper – my feet have become used to feeling free. But I was tempted by the offer of the adidas Supernova, mainly because it’s a long time since I ran long distances and the lure of super boosting energy return was very appealing.

The Supernova is designed with the most responsive boostTM cushioning yet, which means that the more energy the runner gives, the more they get back from the shoe and it’s certainly true that there is a lot of bounce in the sole! In fact much more than I am used to – it’s like running with trampolines strapped to your feet. My feet are cramping up a little with the different feel so I probably won’t wear them on race day, but definitely once London is done, these will be great for my regular training sessions.

As for long sleeves or short sleeves, I still can’t decide and will wait till Saturday to make that decision. But one thing I have decided to do is wear a hat! There are two reasons for this. 1. It will keep the sun out of my eyes and my hair in place. 2. Watching the Bath Half Marathon, I conducted some informal research to see what is the most visible kit to wear and aside from a rhino costume, a hat is the easiest to spot because 99% of people are not wearing one!